Posts Tagged ‘Theater Hopper: Year One’

I just wanted to send a shout-out to the people who have been helping me to promote the book today. As you can imagine, it’s been nerve-wracking trying to guess what the resonse will be. These stand up guys have really done a great job helping to spread the word.

First, thanks to Tim from Ctrl+Alt+Del. The number of hits he’s been sending my way are STAGGERING. I think Tim linked to me once a long time ago after I did a guest strip for him. I thought those numbers were impressive. Let’s just say he’s doing pretty well these days. You never really have a concept of how popular your contemporaries are until you’re linked by them.

At any rate, if you’re new to the site, welcome. I think you’ll find a lot of great stuff here if you’re into movies. Be sure to play around with the archive search function. Type in whatever you can think of. You’ll be surprised with some of the results it returns.

Some other news: I’ve installed a couple of book-related graphics between the comic and the blog. One of them is a reminder for you to take advantage of our street team offer. The other is a gauge that roughly shows you how far we need to go on the pre-order front before we have the funds needed to send the whole thing off to the printer.

Today was a good day. We’re a little less than one-tenth of the way to our goal. That’s very respectable – but I’d like to make sure we keep going strong! So if you’re thinking about pre-ordering, don’t wait! We need your support! Be sure to tell all your friends as well. Spread the news around the internet. Tell people about the book in the forum communities you visit or on your LiveJournal friends pages.

On average, there about 6,000 of you who check the site daily. If every one of you told a friend about Theater Hopper and what we’re doing with the book, that’s excellent word of mouth! You CAN make a difference!

Thanks again to everyone for their support! Launching this initiative has really shown me how tight the community is and how many great friends I’ve made doing this. I consider myself exceptionally lucky.

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Typically this is the time and place where I welcome you back from the weekend and talk about today comic.

Today, that is unnecessary. Today I only want to talk about one thing – THIS!…

That is the full cover to "Theater Hopper: Year One" – my very first book. Either click on the image or click here. In either case, you will be taken to the page where you can place your pre-order!

Ladies and gentlemen, we’re in full swing!

This has been a long time coming for me. I’ve been wanting to do a book since probably 2003, but I didn’t know how to do it. Eventually, I asked around about the process, figured out what vendors to go to, made a schedule for myself and stuck to it. Lo and behold, the book is ready for you to buy.

This last week where I’ve been building it up has been sheer torture for me. I’m really excited for you guys to see what I’ve put together and I just wanted to get it out there! But at the same time, I think it was a good idea to tease it a little bit so you knew what was coming down the line. Hopefully, you’re as excited about it as I am!

Don’t forget about the street team! Be sure to tell as many of your friends as possible about the book and get them to place an order. Keep your eyes on the prize! If you get 5 people to order a book along with you, I’ll send you a $20 gift certificate to Fandango.com! The first 25 readers to complete the task will also win a Theater Hopper t-shirt.

As always, be sure to check out the street team page for talking points and the four-page preview. I’m going to start tossing in banner ads this week for you guys to help spread around for me.

I think there would be nothing greater than if we could really get this pre-order period off on the right foot. And if we could gather all of the orders we need and raise the nessecary funds for the printer by this week, I would be thrilled!

So if you’re thinking at all about buying this book – this wonderful, 200 page, full-color book with exclusive commentary from yours truly… commentary you won’t find anywhere else! – do the right thing and place your order this week. Don’t wait. Do it now. The faster you order, the faster we can get your book to you!

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I just wanted to say something really quickly about the book pre-orders before I talk about today’s guest strip.

Tomorrow Cami and I are going on vacation. It’s a long one. We won’t be back until May 30. When we get back, we have less than two weeks to really drive home pre-orders to meet the minimum requirement we need to be able to pay the printer. The deadline in June 11.

You guys were really great about placing your orders last week when I mentioned the deadline, so I want to mention it again. I’ve also posted a new graphic to the right of the comic that outlines EXACTLY what we need to make this a success.

So, once again, I stress that I need your help. You know the reasons why. Time is running out.

For those of you who have already placed your orders, you guys are awesome and I really appreciate your support. The time is drawing near. It won’t be long now until you get your copy delivered to your hot little hands!

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Hey, guys. Tom here, back from vacation and back with some important news.

On Sunday the pre-order for our first book "Theater Hopper: Year One" will come to a close. If you’ve been visiting the front page and monitoring the tally, you can see that we’re currently 211 orders shy of our goal. Remember that the money from the pre-sale went toward the production of the larger print run.

I’m not optimistic that 211 orders will come flooding into my inbox before Sunday, but I’ve come too far to let this die on the vine and I still really want to see this book happen.

So what does this mean? It means that despite the lack of orders, the book is still going forward. However, I have to cut the number of books I had planned on ordering, which raises the cost per book and cuts into my profit margin. That’s unfortunate because the profits from this book is what I planned to bankroll the second book, shortening the pre-order period.

What doubly sucks is that even with the lower print run, I still have to pay considerable expenses out of my own pocket to make up the difference. My hope is that once the books are completed and I have them in hand, another wave of orders will come in and I’ll make some of that money back. But there are no assurances in life, as I thought getting a few hundred pre-orders was pretty reasonable.

For those of you who have already places your orders – THANK YOU. I appreciate your generosity and support. If you can help to spread the word about the pre-order deadline or convince your friends to pre-order a copy, that would be great.

I’m still trying to decide if I bit off more than I could chew or if I planned poorly. Looking back, I don’t think there’s much more I could have done in terms of promotion or advertising to get the word out. So now, it’s all in your hands. I’ve shown my cards. You know that the book is going forward whether you pre-order or if you don’t. But hopefully you recognize the financial stakes for me personally and pre-order a copy of the book before Sunday to help lessen the burden.

If you can’t afford to pre-order right now. I totally understand and I don’t mean to guilt you. This call to action is for those of you who want to buy a book but are waiting for them to be published. My goal is to motivate you NOT to wait.

Until then, your continued support of the site is very much appreciated and I thank each and every one of you who make Theater Hopper a stop in their browser every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I consider myself exceptionally lucky that I’ve been able to make it this far on what is otherwise a hobby.

I think they’ve been advertising Cars ever since The Incredibles came out in 2004 and, since it’s a Pixar movie, I’ve been eagerly anticipating it ever since.

But going on vacation kind of screws up your time table and we’re still trying to integrate ourselves back into the flow of pop culture. That’s why I was kind of caught off guard when I remembered that it’s in theaters today! Yippee!

In my opinion, Pixar can do no wrong. While I was a little skittish about Cars at first, the trailers got progressively better and I knew they had a winner on their hands. There have been a lot of doubters in the blogosphere, but trust me. Cars is gonna knock your socks off it.

I have more to say about the haters, but I’m going to put that on hold for Monday’s comic.

You might have noticed that Cami is sporting a new hairdo. Truthfully, this is something I’ve been itching to do for a while. I kept trying to figure out a way to "introduce" the haircut before finally realizing that was stupid. People get their hair styled differently all the time. I don’t know why everything I do needs an explaination. When I started coloring Tom’s scalp so he didn’t look like Charlie Brown’s long-lost cousin, no one made a peep.

Anyway, I really like Cami’s new look and I hope you do too. Real-life Cami loves the fuller head of hair. The last one looked too much like a swim cap. See? We’re learning new things every day!

I feel good about todays comic. I didn’t think that last two were that good. It took me longer than expect to fall back into things. To think of comics and jokes more organically. I felt like I was really forcing the last two. Hopefully I can keep firing on all cylinders going forward.

Well, this is the last comic update before the deadline on the book pre-orders. If you notice the little countdown thingee in the upper right hand corner, you’ll notice that it’s dropped significantly. Do you believe in miracles? Because I do! Just when I thought things were looking grim, along comes Pierre-Luc Brunet from ZeStuff with a great business offer. He proposed buying 100 books off me to sell in his store that also sells merchandise from web comic luminaries like Ctrl+Alt+Del, VG Cats and 8-bit Theater. How could I say no?! I’m very psyched that copies of Theater Hopper – Year One will be alongside the wares of these other comics that I have enjoyed and looked up to for years. So Pierre-Luc? You’re the bee’s knees!

Incidentally, Pierre-Luc recently welcomed their first son into the world – Vincent. Both Mother and baby are doing great. Congratulations to the proud parents.

I should mention that even though Pierre-Luc’s offer came at the best possible time, your efforts in the last week have really helped as well. I must have gotten two dozen orders in the last 7 days from you guys and that’s absolutely amazing! As you can see, there are still a few book orders that we could still squeeze in. Honestly, there’s always room for more. But I just sent the artwork to the printer today and production starts next Monday. I hope to get a proof back soon and – hopefully – the books will be finished by the end of July. My goal is to have books to take with me to Wizard World Chicgo on August 4 – 6. In fact, we’re even talking about throwing a book launch party to celebrate! So if you’re on the fence about going to Wizard World Chicago, you gotta be there and visit me in my booth on Artist Alley. I’ll be handing out invitations and there will be free beer involved!

Just sayin’…

At any rate, sincere thanks to all of you that have put your faith into me and the book. You didn’t have to pre-order, but you did and you’ve really helped me out tremendously. My first book IS GOING TO HAPPEN! I am really pumped!

Oh, one more thing. I know I was talking about Wizard World Chicago in August, but if you want to see me before then, I will be at a convention here in Des Moines this weekend. In my own backyard! I will be exhibiting at I-Con Comic Book Convention this Saturday, June 10 at the Polk County Convention Center here in Des Moines from 10 AM to 5 PM. This is a big deal for me because I’ve been wanting to go to this convention for two years, but could never make it because I was always out of town. It’ll be great to represent Des Moines along with the other local and regional talent. I won’t have books, of course. But I’ll have t-shirts, posters and buttons. And I’ll sign or draw anything you like! Come down and see me this Saturday!

Whew! That’s a big post! A lot of news to share. Mainly, I’m excited about the book. Thank you again. Now that I’ve sent off the artwork, I can stop worrying about it for a little while. Sure, I’ll always have inventory and I’ll remind those of you who haven’t bought a book yet that they’re still available from time to time. But now that you guys have helped me get over that first big hurdle, I can get back to talking about movies and the stuff that interests you.

I feel like I’ve been away for a long time and I’m finally making my way back home.

Seriously, guys. You should have been hanging out with me yesterday. I was on Cloud 9. As I was driving to pick up the books from the frieght agency that was storing them on their docks, I swear the air was sweeter and my car stereo was pumping tunes more clearly. Flipping through this book… to have it in my hands… WOW. Big accomplishment for me. You have no idea.

Sincere thanks to each and every one of you who pre-ordered a copy. You helped make my dream come true! Now that I have this first book under my belt, I hope to do "Theater Hopper: Year Two" very soon. I’d love for it to be out by Christmas, but it really depends how well "Theater Hopper: Year One" sells first.

On that note, if you were holding off on pre-ordering a copy of "Theater Hopper: Year One," these pictures are the proof that – yes – the book IS in fact REAL. You should order one soon. We’ve already burned through half of our first print run and I’m taking a BUNCH of these books to Wizard World Chicago. So there might be very less very soon!

I can’t tell you how excited I am. Cami and I have put together a great plan to get this book in front of many people as possible. You guys have helped us meet the first goal. Now we’re going to start trying to get press for the book – both local and national – and see if we can’t push things a little farther in regards to Theater Hopper’s overall visibility and success.

I have a lot of stuff that I want to talk about today, so be sure to check back to the site often for updates. Right now, I plan on putting messages together as I have time since I’ve had to ramp back up to "real-life" speed in a fairly short amount of time after a 6-hour drive home from Chicago yesterday. I’m wiped out, but I’m excited!

First, let me say that my attendance at the 2006 Wizard World Chicago comic book convention was my best convention EVER! I was really nervous about going because, for me, it was the culmination of an effort that started back in October of 2005 when I first set out to put together "Theater Hopper: Year One." My expectations for Wizard World Chicago were very high and felt that my success or failure there was really going to set the tone for the larger goals I hoped to accomplish with Theater Hopper.

Well, I can say with confidence that "Theater Hopper: Year One" was a resounding SUCCESS! I sold dozens of books and a bunch of t-shirts. I met all kinds of great people and passed out a ton of fliers. If you’re one of the people I talked to who is visiting the site for the first time, welcome! If you like, feel free to start from the begining and work your way through the arcI have a lot of stuff that I want to talk about today, so be sure to check back to the site often for updates. Right now, I plan on putting messages together as I have time since I’ve had to ramp back up to "real-life" speed in a fairly short amount of time after a 6-hour drive home from Chicago yesterday. I’m wiped out, but I’m excited!

First, let me say that my attendance at the 2006 Wizard World Chicago comic book convention was my best convention EVER! I was really nervous about going because, for me, it was the culmination of an effort that started back in October of 2005 when I first set out to put together "Theater Hopper: Year One." My expectations for Wizard World Chicago were very high and felt that my success or failure there was really going to set the tone for the larger goals I hoped to accomplish with Theater Hopper.

Well, I can say with confidence that "Theater Hopper: Year One" was a resounding SUCCESS! I sold dozens of books and a bunch of t-shirts. I met all kinds of great people and passed out a ton of fliers. If you’re one of the people I talked to who is visiting the site for the first time, welcome! If you like, feel free to start from the begining and work your way through the archive. Of course, I’m up to 589 comics counting this one, so that could be a daunting task! If you’d like to skip around a little bit, visit the archive page and pick a date! Or, take advantage of our database search function that allows you to type in the title of nearly any movie you can think of and it will return the comic that spoofs it!

I think what really amazed me most were the fans who came to the convention looking for me. I never expect it. Despite the fact that Saturday marked the beginning of my fifth year doing this comic, I never expect anyone to know who I am or appreciate what I do. So it’s very mind-blowing when someone walks up to the table and says "I’ve been looking for you!" or when they approach you wearing one of the t-shirts you designed. I mean, in a convention hall that’s selling literally everything and that covers so many facets of entertainment – not just comics… For someone to wake up, throw on a Theater Hopper t-shirt, march down to the convention and say "THIS is what I’m into." That’s awesome.

I mean, I had someone come up to me with their cell phone so I could say "Hi" to their friend who was stuck at work. I’m more than happy to do it and it was a really fun conversation, but who the hell am I? I’m just some guy that does a web comic! Who wants to talk to me on their break?

I’m stumbling around. But it’s my way of saying thanks. What an incredible validation.

I think the other thing I was surprised by was the almost instant feedback I was getting about the book. I was actually able to sell a lot more of them to people unfamiliar to the comic than I had anticipated. I’m not complaining! Just surprised. But I had a few people come back to me on Sunday who had either bought the book on Friday or Saturday and told me how much they liked it!

I didn’t really get a chance to get out from behind my table and walk around, but I’m not complaining. That’s a good problem to have. All the same, it kept me away from the members of the press I wanted to talk to about the book. Fortunately, a few of them came down to Artist’s Alley and I was able to hand out a few press releases. I’m gonna follow up with you guys!

I should also mention that Saturday’s book release party was a real success. It was mostly people from the Digital Pimp crew – including the fabulous Joe Dunn, plus Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex, Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey, Mitch Clem from San Antonio Rock City and myself. But there were also a few fans in attendance and we had a great old time. I seriously never laughed so hard in my life!

I feel like I’m leaving out a bunch of details. But, truthfully, the whole convention went by so fast and I think I’m still processing it. 3:00 rolled around yesterday and I had to pack up in order to get home at a reasonable hour. I didn’t want to go!

Sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to stop by my booth and talk to me about Theater Hopper. If you bought a shirt or a copy of the book, extra SPECIAL thanks for giving me a chance. I mean, Wizard World Chicago is HUGE. Maybe the second largest convention of the year after the San Diego ComiCon. For anyone to walk through those doors, past every exhibitor and dealer and to say "This looks good. I want to buy your book." Well – don’t think I don’t take that for the miracle it is.

Come back later in the day. I still have lots to talk about regarding last week’s guest strips, Talladega Nights and the winner of the Fandango mailing list sign-up drawing!hive. Of course, I’m up to 589 comics counting this one, so that could be a daunting task! If you’d like to skip around a little bit, visit the archive page and pick a date! Or, take advantage of our database search function that allows you to type in the title of nearly any movie you can think of and it will return the comic that spoofs it!

I think what really amazed me most were the fans who came to the convention looking for me. I never expect it. Despite the fact that Saturday marked the beginning of my fifth year doing this comic, I never expect anyone to know who I am or appreciate what I do. So it’s very mind-blowing when someone walks up to the table and says "I’ve been looking for you!" or when they approach you wearing one of the t-shirts you designed. I mean, in a convention hall that’s selling literally everything and that covers so many facets of entertainment – not just comics… For someone to wake up, throw on a Theater Hopper t-shirt, march down to the convention and say "THIS is what I’m into." That’s awesome.

I mean, I had someone come up to me with their cell phone so I could say "Hi" to their friend who was stuck at work. I’m more than happy to do it and it was a really fun conversation, but who the hell am I? I’m just some guy that does a web comic! Who wants to talk to me on their break?

I’m stumbling around. But it’s my way of saying thanks. What an incredible validation.

I think the other thing I was surprised by was the almost instant feedback I was getting about the book. I was actually able to sell a lot more of them to people unfamiliar to the comic than I had anticipated. I’m not complaining! Just surprised. But I had a few people come back to me on Sunday who had either bought the book on Friday or Saturday and told me how much they liked it!

I didn’t really get a chance to get out from behind my table and walk around, but I’m not complaining. That’s a good problem to have. All the same, it kept me away from the members of the press I wanted to talk to about the book. Fortunately, a few of them came down to Artist’s Alley and I was able to hand out a few press releases. I’m gonna follow up with you guys!

I should also mention that Saturday’s book release party was a real success. It was mostly people from the Digital Pimp crew – including the fabulous Joe Dunn, plus Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex, Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey, Mitch Clem from San Antonio Rock City and myself. But there were also a few fans in attendance and we had a great old time. I seriously never laughed so hard in my life!

I feel like I’m leaving out a bunch of details. But, truthfully, the whole convention went by so fast and I think I’m still processing it. 3:00 rolled around yesterday and I had to pack up in order to get home at a reasonable hour. I didn’t want to go!

Sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to stop by my booth and talk to me about Theater Hopper. If you bought a shirt or a copy of the book, extra SPECIAL thanks for giving me a chance. I mean, Wizard World Chicago is HUGE. Maybe the second largest convention of the year after the San Diego ComiCon. For anyone to walk through those doors, past every exhibitor and dealer and to say "This looks good. I want to buy your book." Well – don’t think I don’t take that for the miracle it is.

Come back later in the day. I still have lots to talk about regarding last week’s guest strips, Talladega Nights and the winner of the Fandango mailing list sign-up drawing!